As more people continue to be arrested over the sex videos implicating PKR deputy president Mohamed Azmin Ali, the party’s vice-president Zuraida Kamaruddin observed that “certain quarters” appeared to be panicking.

She urged all parties to refrain from making statements on the case and allow the police to conduct a thorough and professional investigation.

“As the police investigation narrows upon the masterminds behind the plot, there seems to be signs of panic among certain quarters.

“Why are certain politicians commenting daily when the police investigation is still ongoing and just as the dragnet closes in upon the plotters? The police should be allowed to do their job without political pressure from any quarter,” she said in a statement today.

While Zuraida did not name the “senior political leaders” who were supposedly panicking and commenting on the case, she made reference to a call for those involved in the scandal to take leave from government positions pending the outcome of the investigation.

This came just hours after PKR information chief Shamsul Iskandar Md Akin made such a call.

Last Saturday, Inspector-General of Police Abdul Hamid Bador said police had found clues pointing to the mastermind's identity, though they had yet to identify those responsible.

Former Santubong PKR Youth leader Haziq Abdullah Abdul Aziz had previously confessed that he was one of the men in the videos that began circulating last month, and claimed that the other person was Azmin.

Azmin had vehemently denied the allegation, describing it as character assassination intended to destroy his political career.

'Double standards'

Meanwhile, Zuraida lamented that there appeared to be double standards with regard to how party members handled the sex video implicating Azmin, as compared to an earlier video that was supposedly linked to PKR president Anwar Ibrahim.

At the time, she said the party was united in condemning the latter as a political conspiracy and gutter politics.

“Now, the very people who took that stand are giving credence to gutter politics by selectively talking about authenticity.

“Worse are some who call for leave of absence from government position to be taken; we made no such call when sleazy videos of Anwar were distributed. All of us, including Azmin, stood solidly with Anwar at that time.

“In the spirit of Reformasi, we rejected sleazy gutter politics. What has happened to that spirit of clean, nation-building politics now?” she said.